Example research essay topics, free essays

You are welcome to search the collection of free essays and term papers. Thousands of essay topics are available. Order unique, original custom papers from our essay writing service.

Sample essay topic, essay writing: Atomic Bombs - 1291 words

Essay you see on this page is a free essay, available to anyone. We strongly do not recommend using any direct quotes from these essays for credit - you will most probably be caught for copying/pasting off the Internet, as it is very easy to trace where the essay has been taken from by a plagiarism detection program. You are welcome to use these samples for your research, but if you want to be sure that your essay is 100% original and one of a kind, we highly recommend to order a custom essay from us.

An atomic bomb is a bomb in which the splitting of
atomic nuclei results in an explosion of
tremendous force and heat, accompanied by a
blinding light. The destructive force of an atomic
bomb is due to nearly instantaneous and
uncontrolled successivefissions of uranium or
plutonium atoms in a chain reaction, each fission
releasing tremendous energy and also neutrons
which produce the succeeding fission (The World
Book Dictionary 129). In other words, these bombs
are very powerful. This was demonstrated in 1940,
when we dropped an Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima during
World War II. This bomb left a crater, in the
ground, that was over a half of a mile long.

One
of the first instances that these bombs were used
was called the Manhattan Project. The Manhattan
Project was created by the United States
government in 1942 to produce the first nuclear
bomb. The official agency that produced the bomb
was the Corps of Engineers' Manhattan Engineer
District, commanded by Major General Leslie
R.Groves. He directed industrial and research
activities at such sites as Oak Ridge, Tennessee,
and Los Alamos, New Mexico (The World Book
Encyclopedia 141). Here they designed to bombs
that were later called "The Fat Man" and "The
Little Boy".

There was later a movie named after
the two bombs that showed how they were made and
theexperiences that came with making them. A
worker was killed during the final stages of the
Manhattan Project when a critical assembly of
fissile material was accidentally brought together
by hand. This incident, which was dramatized in
"Fat Man and Little Boy", pre-dated remote-control
assembly of such components, but the hazards of
manualassembly were known at the time (U.S.
Nuclear Accidents, Internet). Only 9 months after
that, a similar problem occurred which there were
8 people that got radiation exposure and 7 of them
died because of it. In the past, there were very
many nuclear accidents.

One of these was in 1982.
International Nutronics in Dover, New Jersey,
which used radiation baths to purify gems,
chemicals, food, and medical supplies, experienced
an accident that completely contaminated the
plant, forcing its closure. A pump malfunctioned,
siphoning water from the baths onto the floor; the
water eventually was drained into the sewer system
of the heavily populated town of Dover. The NRC
wasn't informed of the accident until ten months
later. In 1986, the company and one of its top
executives were convicted by a federal jury of
conspiracy and fraud. Radiation has been detected
in the vicinity of the plant, but the levels are
thought to be nondangerous.

This shows how
dangerous the stuff that these bombs are made out
of is. Just the fact that this incident happened
17 years ago, and there are still levels of
radiation in the area that are being detected.
Another incident was recorded in 1979 when a major
accident occurred at the Three Mile Island nuclear
plant near Middletown, Pennsylvania. A series of
human and mechanical failures nearly triggered a
nuclear disaster. After cooling water was lost
andtemperatures rose above 5.000 degrees, the top
half of the reactors 150 ton core collapsed and
melted. Contaminated coolant water escaped into a
nearby building, releasing radioactive gasses,
leading as many as 200,000 people to flee the
region.

There are thought to be at least 430
infant deaths at this time. This just shows how
out of hand the material can get if it is not
closely supervised at all times. One little mess
up and it could do as much damage as to destroy a
whole area up to 100's of miles so that no one
could even step ground there for the rest of their
lives. More present day accidents include this one
in February of 1993 where a reactor in New Jersey
was averted by just 90 seconds when the plant was
shut down manually, following the failure of
automatic shutdown systems to act properly. The
same automatic systems had failed to respond in an
incident 3 days before, and other problems plagued
this plant as well, such as a 3,000 gallon leak of
radioactive water in June 1981.

A 23,000 gallon a
radioactive water also splashed into 16 workers
and killed them all within hours of contact. There
have also been a few accidents where atomic bombs
were dropped while armed during transfer. In one
case, a fully armed missile was accidentally
dropped 17 feet from a crane in Scotland during a
transfer operation between a submarine and its
mothership. This is thought to have killed all of
the crews. The missile did not have full effect
because it was relatively closed to the ground.

On
January 13, 1964, a B-52 bomber with active
nuclear bombs crashed in Maryland killing 18
people in a rural area. This shows that these
bombs were not properly equipped in the early
stages of their production. They later came up
with remote setinators that made it able to
activate these bombs after release. This meant
that it was not as harmful for the detonators
because the bomb would not be activated until it
had been deployed. There are also some precautions
that can be taken so that these accidents cannot
harm those that have been working around it.

One
of these is for minor accidents and spills without
radiational hazard to the personnel. In the case
of this type of accident youshould first confine
the spill and post that the spill area is in that
particular place. To confine this, you should wear
protective gloves and drop absorbent paper on the
spill. Second, you should damp wipe the proper
solvent, taking care not to spread contamination.
Then you should decontaminate the spill. After all
that, you should monitor all of those involved in
the spill and clean up operations.

Finally, a copy
of the written report of this spill shall be sent
to the Safety Office. For major accidents and
spills involving a radiation hazard to personnel
you should notify all persons not involved in the
spill to evacuate the room at once. The personnel
not involved in the accident should give first aid
to any injured person. Then they should evacuate
the room and then monitor themselves and
decontaminate if necessary. After that they should
notify the Safety Office that the spill has
happened and the conditions of those that were
involved in the spill.

Finally, there are
accidents involving radioactive dusts, mists,
fumes, organic vapors and gasses. First of all, if
you are involved in this type of accident, you
should hold your breath and do whatever is
possible to confine the activity as time permits.
Then you should notify all other persons to vacate
the room immediately. To vacate the room you
should close the door and remain in the doorway,
remove protective clothing and monitor or be
monitored thoroughly for contamination. If skin or
hair is significantlycontaminated, proceed to
adjacent radioisotope laboratory and begin
decontamination. The Radiation Safety Officer will
take nasal smears and saliva samples.

Then you
should make sure that all of the doors and
passageways to the contaminated area are closed
and properly sealed. You should do all to prevent
that these doors are not accidentally opened. Make
sure that all personnel is kept in one area until
all are monitored. Then, use protective clothing
and respiratory protection to evaluate
contamination. Plan thedecontamination procedure
and assemble decontamination equipment.

Do not
decontaminate until plans have been worked out,
the required equipment has been obtained and the
Radiation Officer has authorized the clean up.
Decontaminate the area working from "clean" to
"warm" to "hot" areas. Prepare a complete written
history of theaccident and subsequent events. All
of the procedures listed above are there for the
safety of all people that worked on the clean
up.Citation PageWorld Book Dictionary: Clearence
L. Barnhart, World Book Inc., Chicago, 1984 World
Book Encyclopedia: Scott Fitzgerald, World Book
Inc., Chicago, 1984.